THE truth of the matter is WE are facing the biggest financial challenge since the creation of the Commonwealth. The deficit is a paradigm created by Ralph & David, who is on the run, that must be broken if WE are to overcome this challenge that can only happen by “thinking-outside-the-box” (breaking the paradigm). It is good common sense to cut-cost in this dilemma but WE are literally “burning a candle at both ends” and when the two-wicks meet it spells total devastation, which is why WE must work “both ends of the problem.” WE must “cut cost & create new revenues” if there is to be genuine HOPE with light shining at the end of this ordeal. Creating new revenues is what will really save us in the end, as cutting cost is what Economists often refer to as “a necessary bandages to stop the bleeding” but the therapeutic challenge requires actual “treatment” which is finding new sources of revenues, as WE can’t just write a law to make money — it takes real WORK! Only cutting cost will never erase the deficit nor will it give any real hope for OUR Future!
Some may not believe this but this is a GREAT time for a “full reset of our government, boards & commission” that will allow the CNMI to function more cost-effectively and more prudently at all levels. For tooooo long the “public service appointments to Boards & Commissions” have been “treated like and paid like they were full-time jobs” in the tens-of-thousands (40, 50,60 & 70 thousand-plus a year) for only meeting one or two times a month — HELLER &wake-up! These political appointments have been nothing but that — political emissaries who don’t earn nor deserve the extraordinary amount of the money they are being paid. If these board & commission members where actually “DOING-SOMETHING qualitatively & quantitatively to increase production and/or revenues” they would really be earning these large salaries but they are just “meeting, deciding & voting.”
Teachers do more real work than any of the board & commission members for less pay. Heck, the 5-Cannabis Commissioners are making 55,000 a year, yet in one year they only met 9-times and the most they have met is 18-times in one year, while only bringing in less than 50,000 a year. The Casino Commission who are the highest Commissioners paid at over 70,000 a year are the biggest culprits of this “over-paid practice,” as they also only meet to make decisions & vote. The pathetic thing about this Casino Commission is they haven’t lifted a finger to fight for OUR money (77-million), not even filing a law-suit on behalf of the People but watching everyone else who is owed money collect on the sale of IPI collateral equipment. CEDA is another agency that is supposed to be leading our Economic Reforms but WE have spent MILLIONS every year just paying salaries and getting virtually NO returns. MPLT is another board that isn’t worth the paper that created the board, having done NOTHING to help NMDs since the creation of the board, just collected money and voted on cosmetic-policies.
WE the people have been getting ROBBED by these appointees and it was all by design of the GOP to “pay-their-people,” which mainly allowed them to stay in power. How-else could Ralph have gotten over 6,000 votes without the help of emissaries in very high places? But while the agencies can still function without a Secretary, the CNMI cannot continue to function without NEW Revenue Sources. The Governor should consider putting some of the earnest on citizens and the existing board & commission members, as thinking out-side the box, dictates one temporary solution being to ask for “a one-year-volunteer force to come forward to serve on these boards and commissions for FREE” just so WE can get new governing legislation over these boards & commission and the money to pay them — it’s called a “Reform,” that WE need a lot-more of in the CNMI. How many present board & commission members will volunteer to stay and how many other public servants will come forward to offer their services will be interesting to see. WE can separate the “greedy from the Civic-heroes/sheroes who just want to Serve & Help the NEEDY!”
It’s truly time to generate legislation to “govern the salaries of all the boards & commissions at a more reasonable rate,” as these people are supposed to be performing a “public service,” not full-time employees. WE need a full reset of these boards & commissions to break the existing paradigm and I won’t suggest an amount but it should be a standard across all boards & commissions. I don’t blame the citizens for taking these appointments and the salaries, but I do detest their “loyalty to Ralph & the GOP over THEIR task & the People, “especially the Casino Commission who didn’t even TRY to protect nor lay claim to OUR money in Court. But WE can’t react like children who only live in the “NOW,” as our leaders must have the “fortitude, foresight & reforms” to not only cut cost but to also prepare for the future, which is what most parents are challenged with doing every day for their family. Fix the boards & commissions and cut-cost but please address both ends of the deficit candle that is burning and take some small measures to put-out one end by creating NEW Revenue Sources that will pay-off immediately and in the long-run — the wisdom any real Economist worth their degree would offer, for TRUE! Please keep the HOPE Recovery Center and HOPE FOR financial solvency Alive! One People One Direction!
Ambrose M. Bennett is an Economist who minored in Sociology, a Political Scientist, a retired teacher & former CNMI Board of Education Member, a James Madison Fellow (U.S. Constitutional Scholar), a Fulbright-Hays & lifetime Humanities Scholar who resides in Kagman III.
Ambrose M. Bennett
